


Sunflowers and Water Lilies

by eternalempires



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Airbending & Airbenders, Angst and Humor, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brotherly Love, Earthbending & Earthbenders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, Firebending & Firebenders, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, Relationship Reveal, Unrequited Love, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26381833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalempires/pseuds/eternalempires
Summary: Zutara Oneshots:Enemies to friends to lovers.Betrayal and angst and fluff.Confusion and desperation.Love.Trust.
Relationships: Aang/Toph Beifong, Katara/Suki (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Sunflowers and Water Lilies

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble at the moment, hope you enjoy!

For years, Katara has been plagued by the same nightmare— repeating over and over again in her mind that it began to resemble a twisted memory.

When she closed her eyes she was thrown back four years ago, watching the Agni Kai between Azula and Zuko. She still felt that worry and fear as she watched the two firebenders fight, his warm red fire clashing with his sister's harsh blue lightning.

And then—  _ then  _ that lightning turns on her.

Zuko got between her and it without hesitation, protecting her with his life.

Only, this time, she didn't save him.

Katara woke up yelling his name on most occasions, sobbing into the darkness or morning light as the terror and desperation clawed soreness into the back of her throat.

This night was no different.

In her dreams, she was holding Zuko’s lifeless body, his warmth long gone as his inner fire had cruelly been snuffed out. She was begging and pleading for the man she now considered her best friend to come back to her. To please,  _ please  _ don’t leave her.

Don’t leave her to take on the world alone.

Don’t leave her unbalanced.

Don’t take away her sun, her light.

_ Don’t go _ .

Always those two words, sobbed over and over again. Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go.

She brushed the hair away from his amber eyes, crying out in agony at the emptiness she saw in his always sharp gaze.

She wanted to tell him so much— she had too many things to say, too many wishes unfulfilled, too many promises broken by a life taken too soon.

“Don’t go.” A sob broke from her lips as they trembled in a light kiss on his forehead. “Don’t leave me.”

Zuko didn’t move, he didn’t breathe. He didn’t answer her plea, he didn’t look up at her in that soft way he always did and reassure her that everything would be okay.

Because it wasn’t.

He was gone. He left her.

_ And it was all her fault. _

Clutching him closer, hyperventilating as the sorrow etched an icy cave into the side of her heart, Katara begged all the more, “Don’t go. Zuko, Zuko please. Please don’t go.”

She was desperate, panicked.

She was losing part of her soul; she was losing her heart.

Outside of the Southern Water Tribe’s Princess’ chamber, gifted as soon as she had arrived earlier that week in the fire nation, the Chamberlain heard Katara’s sobs of anguish and pleas.

At first he was bewildered, never hearing such a distraught tone from the young war hero before. Then, deciding that if she was in such distress, he knew it wasn’t such a good idea for a practical stranger such as himself to intervene and went to his Fire Lord’s chambers.

It wasn’t that long of a walk, seeing as his room was only a couple hallways away and in the same private wing of the palace usually reserved for only the royal family, but with each footstep, the man felt more worried for Katara.

He knew she had been through something terrible with sobs like that. All the young war heroes have seen tragedies he couldn’t imagine but something told him it was more personal.

Not a horror seen on the battlefield but a hysteric reaction birthed from loss.

Zuko had only gotten an hour of sleep when he heard the sound of someone’s frantic knocking on his room’s doors, having stayed up late finishing paperwork.

The Fire Lord groggily got out of bed and slipped on a thick night robe over his bare chest and loose-pant covered legs. With quick steps, he went over to the door and opened it, scowling as he asked, “What do you want?”

Gulping at the most powerful firebender in the world that was obviously grumpy at having been woken up, the Lord Chamberlain lowered his eyes. “Sorry for the disturbance, Your Majesty.” He bowed. Zuko watched in sleepy attentiveness. “It’s urgent, otherwise I wouldn’t dare to wake you.”

What could possibly be important enough that someone, the Chamberlain nonetheless, would wake him up? And seeing how most of his people were scared of him, Zuko figured it really must be a thing pertinent to the moment.

_ The responsibilities of a leader never ends _ , he thought tiredly.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Her Highness Katara is having a nightmare, I believe.” Lord Chamberlain's worries were now presented on his face and Zuko instantly frowned. “I was doing my nightly rounds on the grounds and I heard her crying from outside of her room. It sounded bad, your majesty, and I believe I heard her say your name as well.”

“Thank you for informing me,” Zuko distractedly nodded, mumbling something to himself. “Please arrange for our breakfast to be brought to the garden tomorrow morning, and push back the recall meeting for the afternoon.”

Then he was briskly walking off towards his waterbender, concern making his heart pound.

Katara was having a nightmare? Of what?

Something before he met her? The day her mother was... killed? Something that happened to her? Something he did?

Oh, Angi,  _ please  _ don’t let it be something he did. The guilt would never let him live.

He never wanted Katara to be in pain, to be hurt or uncomfortable. He hated himself, knowing he had been the cause of her suffering before.

His little raindrop deserved better.

As Zuko came to the waterbender’s door, he heard her whimpers and sobs, and quickly hurried in, his eyes frantically searching out her delicate form.

He had seen Katara go through many hurtful things before.

He had stood beside her and comforted her as the sadness encased her during the anniversary of her mother’s death.

He had helped her take care of injuries despite knowing she could heal it with her bending, and he had held her as she cried from arguments getting out of hand with Toph or Sokka. 

He had been there to help her shoulder the burden of caring for Team Avatar all those years back, easing the exhaustion he saw upon her features as she had been practically parenting the group before then alone.

He had been there through shattered hope and through reaching out to each other in vulnerable moments even when they had been enemies. From the Crystal Catacombs where they had shared their heartaches, to him tying her to the trees while working with pirates and trying to get her to understand him, they had been through a lot.

Both before and after the war was ended.

But nothing could’ve prepared the Fire Lord for what he saw.

Katara was curled in on herself as if she had something to protect— as if she could hold that something tight enough for it to sink right through her flesh and stay safe in her heart, her arms wrapped around her head and hiding her face.

It seemed as though she was shaking with grief and horror, that she desperately was trying to believe that if she couldn’t see it, it wasn’t real.

Zuko’s heart broke.

He recognized that look. He himself wore it often. She was mourning someone that, in her nightmare, she must’ve lost.

_ Someone important. _

“Zuko,” She cried out, shifting restlessly in the protective way she cradled herself. He froze. “Don’t go. Don’t go.” The air took a new icy tone to it, snowflakes floating through the air and melting onto him.

She was bending in her sleep.

She must be completely terrified.

Snapping out of his thoughts and internally berating himself, the aforementioned man shot forward and eased himself to lean towards the waterbender.

“Katara,” Zuko gently eased her wrists away from her face, his frown deepening at how cold she felt and the tear-stains soaking her cheeks. “Katara, wake up.”

Another mourning whimper bubbled up from her throat and she turned to face him, face pale. She looked like she just went to war. He knew that expression well, too.

“Katara, little raindrop,” Zuko carefully sat next to her, her tense body relaxing as he raised his temperature so she could feel his body heat. “Wake up. Come on.”

He held her face with a soft grip, watching as her shiny eyes slowly blinked open. Tears cascaded down her cheeks, and she gasped softly, jerking closer to his touch.

“It’s okay,” Zuko eased next to her, sitting further onto the bed. “You’re okay, you just had a nightmare. Whatever happened wasn’t real, you’re safe.”

“Zuko,” Katara croaked out. He hated how her voice cracked on his name as if the weight of it didn’t fit correctly into her mouth. As if she was scared he wasn’t real.

He remembered how she said ‘don’t go’ with such abhorrent fear that it shot ice down his spine.

She thought he would leave her?

_ Never _ . That wasn’t even an option.

“I’m here.” He reassured, brushing a chaotic strand of her hand away from her face. “I’m not going anyway, okay? I’m here.”

Raising her arms, Katara wrapped them around his waist, tugging herself closer as she brought his body to lay down next to hers. The Fire Lord blushed but didn’t move away, knowing that she was a cuddler and knew that she needed this for comfort.

Not many times had he witnessed Katara having a nightmare but those few weeks they had been together at the Western Air Temple he had witnessed Sokka soothing her afterwards with brotherly hugs and stupid comments.

He wasn’t Sokka and he didn’t know how to be playful like that or lift moods, his awkwardness staying put even after so many years.

But he still wanted to comfort her.

She settles her head against his chest, his thin rob letting her cool skin ease the burning fire travelling through his veins. Tears flowed against the fabric as she hid her face against his neck, mumbling something to herself as she held onto him.

“I’m so sorry for whatever caused your nightmare,” Zuko whispered into the crown of her head, smelling the water lily scent of her hair. His fingers curled into the back of her head and spread through the soft strands and the other ran up and down her arm. Both of his arms held her close, his body cradling hers as if sheltering her from the horrors of her own mind.

“It’s not your fault,” Katara sounded so bitter. “It’s mine.”

The Fire Lord frowned and looked down at his sorrow-filled little raindrop. “Your fault?”

How could a bad dream be her fault?

Was she like him— imagining a memory in vivid details, scared to see a past self unravel in a cruel way? Was she terrified to relive the ways she used to be?

Or was she always kind-hearted?

What did a woman like her regret?

“I… I can’t— you were gone and I—” The waterbender sounded choked up, her deep blue eyes looking into his amber ones with a certain forlorn longing in them, one he assumed was brought out from a moment of loss. “You were gone, Zuko. It was my fault… I keep losing you, I always try to tell you not to jump in front of me. I always try to stop her. I-It never works. I can’t— I can’t save you.”

His heart beat painfully in his chest as he pieced together what her nightmare had been about: the time he had taken a lightning bolt straight to his chest because Azula tried to shoot at her— his weakness.

Zuko didn’t know how his sister knew that attacking Katara would invoke such a reaction out of him. Perhaps she saw the way he looked at the young waterbender back then. Perhaps, just like their father, she thought that love— that caring about someone, anyone at all, was a flaw.

_ No one can beat you if you have nothing to lose _ , Azula used to tell him, that wicked gleam in her amber eyes… eyes he saw in the mirror, eyes they got from their father.

“Katara…” He wasn’t sure what to say, even if talking to her had always been rather easy. No one comforted him, no one woke him from the nightmares, and no one was there to wipe away the tears. He learned not to let them— not that anyone wanted to other than his mother or Uncle Iroh. So how was he supposed to comfort someone else? “You didn’t lose me. I’m right here, I’ll always be here for you. I’m alive right now because of you, because after everything I did you saved me.”

“Of course I saved you!” Katara said, body tensing slightly as she used her elbows to prop herself against his chest and stare down at the Fire Lord, sapphire eyes narrowed. “Do you think that you didn’t deserve to be saved?”

“I…” Zuko was at a loss of words.

_ Now  _ he knew that saving him was a good thing, now he understood how important he was not only to Team Avatar and his uncle but the world. But back then? He would’ve accepted death in a heartbeat.

“You deserve to live,” Her eyes were glassy with a fierce kind of determination and tears. “You deserve everything good that this life has to offer, more than anyone. You have fought tooth and nail and life and death for your nation and for this world. Everyone else’s battle ended four years ago but yours didn’t! You are the leader, you’re the Fire Lord. You’re not only rebuilding and fixing your nation, you’re trying to change it for the better— and you’re practically doing it alone. You have been through so much and I’d be willingly taken to the depths by La if I ever let you believe that you don’t deserve happiness.”

Katara looked into Zuko’s intelligent yet sad amber eyes and looked between them, desperately trying to see if he believed her.

She had seen him die over and over, she’s seen him fight for his life and she’s seen people trying to kill him— at one point she would’ve wanted someone to just make him… disappear, to stop chasing Aang and the rest of them around the world.

She even threatened him before as well.

But that was before he joined them in the Western Air Temple, before she learned what a compassionate heart he had hiding behind all those years of built up pain and shame.

“Thank you,” His eyes softened and he brought a hand up to cup her face and suddenly she realized how close they were— noses almost touching, sharing the same air as their bodies pressed mercilessly against one another.

His skin was hot against her fingertips and every place they touched sent fire curling through her veins… it was a warmth she craved for so long that she was sure she would’ve crumpled on her weak knees had she been standing.

“Hm,” Katara hummed and leaned into his touch, closing her eyes as his hand nuzzled closer to her cheek— his skin was slightly rough but gentle. “You’re so warm.”

It’s been so long since someone touched her with tenderness like this.

Like they actually cared.

Zuko laughed lightly, closing his eyes, “I am a firebender.”

“I know, sunflower.” Sleep started to pull Katara into its grasps and she let it. “I know.”


End file.
